Vásquez-Mireles, West, S (2007). Mix It Up. The Science Teacher. February, 47-49. Journal Article
This article was about the correlation (opposed to the integration) of math in a science classroom. A correlated science lesson is characterized as an integrated science lesson in that it may incorporate traditionally integrated activities and use math as a tool. However, a correlated math-science lesson also has the pertinent math and science objectives aligned with state standards and teaches parallel science and math ideas equally. The article then went on to describe how there is minimal research and inconsistent results in the existing research and how a review of literature provides limited evidence about the effectiveness of connecting math and science instruction. Nevertheless, both the National Science Education Standards and the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics recommend integration of science and math curricula. Because of this, this article was written to provide suggestions for correlating science and math in the classroom. It recommended to find a math teacher partner to work with, choose a science concept, teach the science concept to your math partner, identify the pertinent math concepts, have the math teacher teach the math concepts to you, co-develop the correlated lesson, and lastly decide the mode of instruction. Following these steps could lead to a more effective classroom.
I enjoyed reading this article and found it really helpful because there are many concepts in my content area, biology, that deal with math concepts. It think that it is very important to help students find connections between content areas and to apply and see concepts in a new way. This can help them to better categorize ideas, to understand it better, and to get more practice with it. I want to be able to work with a math teacher as the article suggests because feel that we could learn and work together to help the students succeed. Furthermore, just as the article stated, these linkages exist naturally and provide students with a more realistic learning environment and thus better preparation for life and/or college.I feel that the more students connect with material, the more they will learn, and be WILLING to learn!
Also, I have never been in a classroom where two subjects were correlated, in that an outsider wouldn't be able to distinguish which of the two subject the teacher normally teaches, or which of the two classes the students are in. I figure it would be very difficult to pull off as literally as the article suggests, especially since there is no real evidence of increasing the students' science knowledge by correlating it with math. As stated above, I definitely want to integrate subjects with my teaching of biology and make as many connections as I find appropriate, but I don't know if correlation opposed to integration is very feasible, especially with the lack of positive studies and results.
Journal Article
This article was about the correlation (opposed to the integration) of math in a science classroom. A correlated science lesson is characterized as an integrated science lesson in that it may incorporate traditionally integrated activities and use math as a tool. However, a correlated math-science lesson also has the pertinent math and science objectives aligned with state standards and teaches parallel science and math ideas equally. The article then went on to describe how there is minimal research and inconsistent results in the existing research and how a review of literature provides limited evidence about the effectiveness of connecting math and science instruction. Nevertheless, both the National Science Education Standards and the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics recommend integration of science and math curricula. Because of this, this article was written to provide suggestions for correlating science and math in the classroom. It recommended to find a math teacher partner to work with, choose a science concept, teach the science concept to your math partner, identify the pertinent math concepts, have the math teacher teach the math concepts to you, co-develop the correlated lesson, and lastly decide the mode of instruction. Following these steps could lead to a more effective classroom.
I enjoyed reading this article and found it really helpful because there are many concepts in my content area, biology, that deal with math concepts. It think that it is very important to help students find connections between content areas and to apply and see concepts in a new way. This can help them to better categorize ideas, to understand it better, and to get more practice with it. I want to be able to work with a math teacher as the article suggests because feel that we could learn and work together to help the students succeed. Furthermore, just as the article stated, these linkages exist naturally and provide students with a more realistic learning environment and thus better preparation for life and/or college.I feel that the more students connect with material, the more they will learn, and be WILLING to learn!
Also, I have never been in a classroom where two subjects were correlated, in that an outsider wouldn't be able to distinguish which of the two subject the teacher normally teaches, or which of the two classes the students are in. I figure it would be very difficult to pull off as literally as the article suggests, especially since there is no real evidence of increasing the students' science knowledge by correlating it with math. As stated above, I definitely want to integrate subjects with my teaching of biology and make as many connections as I find appropriate, but I don't know if correlation opposed to integration is very feasible, especially with the lack of positive studies and results.